Making this opener even more delicious for the bloodthirsty Foxborough faithful: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is on record saying he plans to attend, which means it will be his first visit to Gillette Stadium since Deflategate broke. The Patriots, of course, enter the season as the defending Super Bowl champions — and they got better in the offseason, which is not good news for the rest of the league.

Quarterback Tom Brady still is at the top of his game, and the Patriots added more talent around him with trades for receiver Brandin Cooks and tight end Dwayne Allen. They also signed star cornerback Stephon Gilmore as a free agent and re-signed linebacker Dont’a Hightower.

Falcons at Patriots, Oct. 22

The question in this Super Bowl LI rematch is whether the Falcons still carry the baggage from the 25-point lead they blew in the title game, whether the numbers 28-3 are still stamped on their psyches.

Dan QuinnAP

“It sucks. There’s no getting around it,” Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said this week when addressing the Super Bowl loss. “You hang on to it for a little bit. You’re in kind of your spot, whatever that is, your dark place for a little bit. Then you realize life goes on.”

Whether the Falcons carry the Super Bowl hangover into 2017 or not will determine how good their chances are of returning to the big game.

Falcons coach Dan Quinn already has come up with a mantra to this ’17 season: “Base camp,’’ signifying his team will be regrouping and restarting the climb again after coming up just short of the summit.

“In the Everest world of the climbers, where they go to base camp, they take a shot, get acclimated, come back, and keep going for it,” Quinn said.

Dolphins at Chargers, Sept. 17

Since the Chargers’ controversial, unpopular and unceremonious move out of San Diego this offseason after spending the last 56 years in the community, they will play their first “home’’ game at the 30,000-seat StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. It will be fascinating to see what the atmosphere is like, how the team’s new fan base embraces it. The stadium houses the L.A. Galaxy of MLS and is little more than half the capacity of most NFL stadiums.

The Chargers are coming off a miserable 4-12 season and own the seventh pick in next week’s NFL draft. They have a new head coach, Anthony Lynn, who said the Chargers have made “the transition as smooth as possible” from San Diego to Los Angeles. We’ll see.

Panthers at 49ers, Sept. 10

We will soon know whether experience is important in running and coaching an NFL team. The 49ers, who have been one of the worst teams in the league the last few years, debut a first-time general manager in John Lynch and a first-time head coach in Kyle Shanahan.

Kyle ShanahanAP

The hire of Shanahan, who was the Falcons’ offensive coordinator, is the third in as many years for the 49ers. Chip Kelly and Jim Tomsula were fired the previous two years after just one year each. Shanahan and Lynch, who came out of the TV analyst booth to become the general manager, were given stunning six-year contracts. So this better work for the 49ers.

Shanahan is known for his dynamic, aggressive offensive mind, which the 49ers hope can change the course of their moribund offense, which ranked 31st in total yards last season. Shanahan’s Falcons offense was ranked No. 1 in the league last season, but he’s most recently remembered for getting too aggressive for his own good in the Super Bowl with that ill-fated fourth-quarter series when he opted to call for passes on consecutive downs, pushing Atlanta out of field-goal range and opening the door for the Patriots’ comeback.

Seahawks at Packers, Sept. 10

This will mark the fourth consecutive season the Seahawks and Packers will face each other, which means the fourth year in a row of Aaron Rodgers vs. Russell Wilson — a treat. The Packers have won the last two meetings, both at Lambeau Field, 38-10 last season and 27-17 in 2015. The Seahawks won 36-16 in 2014 in Seattle.

Rodgers is coming off an extraordinary 2016 season in which he threw 40 touchdowns and just seven interceptions, but the Rodgers’ and Packers’ magical run was cut short by the Falcons in the NFC Championship game. The Seahawks were eliminated by the Falcons in the NFC divisional round.

Chiefs at Cowboys, Nov. 5

These teams face among the toughest schedules in the league this year. The Chiefs meet eight teams that qualified for the playoffs last season, and the Cowboys face the Falcons, Packers, Seahawks and Raiders as well as the Chiefs.

Dallas’ 13-3 regular season, led by rookie quarterback Dak Prescott, came to a sudden halt in the playoffs with a one-and-done divisional 43-31 loss to the Packers. There no longer is a Tony Romo distraction for Prescott and the Cowboys, so this will be a particularly interesting sophomore season with no Romo safety net in place. Kansas City, as usual, will be faced with questions about whether its veteran “game manager’’ quarterback Alex Smith ever can carry the Chiefs to a title.